The House Always Wins
by Tk DuVeraun
Summary: AU. Ace as he lives, grows and learns with his nakama, the Spade pirates. Follow them on a journey not quite what Oda planned. Watch them struggle to follow their dreams and be free. Please read all warnings before reading. Contains many, mostly, OCs.


**Disclaimer**: This unofficial fanfiction is solely for free entertainment of other fans.  
><strong>Notes<strong>: This and the following "chapters" are from one of many "Spade Continuities" that I've plotted and/or written. By "Spade Continuities" I mean various AUs wherein Ace's crew of the Spades were my set of Spade OCs. All sections posted under this story are from the same Alternate Universe, though they may not be in chronological order. However, this is chronologically the first part.

**While Ace tends to be the center, this story is based primarily around his interactions with OCs. He may end up in a relationship with one of them; they may end up in relationships with one another. These might not be heterosexual relationships. If any of that bothers you, please turn back now.**

Please continue reading at your own risk; you have been warned.

Oh, and an additional warning for strong language in this section.

**The House Always Wins - Deal**

Three days out of Fuusha, Ace ran out of food. Chewing his hat's leather strap was no help and all of the restaurants left open in Burgundy demanded pay upfront, so a dine and dash was out. Two low-lives from the mountains picked a fight -and lost- when he snooped around the closed restaurants. While he was busy wiping the grease and scum off his knuckles, he knocked over some poor village-

"Sorry about that." Ace smiled gently and held out his hand, but the girl just turned away from his hand and fingered the thick iron collar around her neck before scuttling through the back door of the tall marble building she'd just left. Holding back a frown, Ace gave up on finding food and went back to his sail boat.

Back in the harbor, he prowled through the docked ships until he found -and then emptied- an open galley. If that galley happened to be on a slaveship, Ace couldn't really be blamed; he was hungry. After waking up and picking his head out of the barrel of rum and wiping his face down, he went back out on deck only to find a young woman shoving a small cask into his chest. "Take this."

He spoke before he even thought about it. "Thank you very much."

"What?" She paused and then visibly shook her head. "Sell it, eat it, I don't care. Whatever you do with it, it'll piss that man off." Her hand jerked up to touch the makeshift eye patch over her left eye. Wood creaked from the dock and the woman started pushing him towards the port railing. "Hurry up and go, stupid. He has a devil fruit power, he can't follow you in the water."

The chain attached to the collar on the woman's neck snapped tight and Ace was about to move away, but then the woman leaned back and kicked him over the wooden railing. Mouth shaped around an "Oh," Ace was too busy trying to figure the woman out to notice the water coming up under him. He landed with a splash and used the cask as a buoy when he yelled up to the deck, "It was nice meeting you." Then, with one arm wrapped around the cask, Ace clumsily swam to shore. Back on the dock, Ace cracked open the cask with the butt of his pocket knife. He pulled out the blindingly orange, swirly fruit and held it in front of his face. A devil fruit. And he wasn't even on the Grandline.

While he stared at the fruit and weighed the pros and cons of eating it, Ace heard someone yelling. "Stupid fucking whore. You think I wouldn't notice it was missing? You threw it overboard, didn't you, bitch?"

"Tossed it to one of the dock hands the minute you turned your back. Kid's probably bought half the town with it by now." A slap.

Hackles raised, Ace peeked over the side and saw a tall man with dark skin and dangling hair like a willow tree holding the woman up by her blonde hair. "You pull shit like that again, and I won't wait until I'm back on the Grandline to sell you. And devil fruit power or not, I can break your neck as long as you've got the stone on you." He dropped her hair and wiped off his hand on his pants. "Damn devil fruit users not worth the fucking trouble. Shoulda _Buried_the damn fruit before she got her disgusting paws on it." Anger churned in Ace's stomach, but the slaver mumbled to himself and left the ship before Ace made a move. Once it was clear, he scrambled over the railing and onto the deck. Time to move in like the marine he'd never be.

Instead of the appreciative smile he was expecting, the woman -actually, she looked more like a teen, rolling her eyes at him like that- had her arm ready to punch him. Since he was too busy trying to guess her age, Ace missed the opportunity dodge and took it right in the solar plexus. He slid all of the way back to the railing from the force and nearly dropped the cask with the devil fruit.

"Whoa." Ace rubbed the slight bruising on his chest - she hit harder than Luffy. She was still glaring daggers at him when a sudden thought popped into his head. He grinned. "That was pretty rude, wasn't it? Excuse me, I'm Ace."

"I don't care who you are, retard! Stop bowing and go already! Before he-"

The lanky slaver lunged towards Ace and the fruit. "Kihihihi, I'm not that stupid, slut. Knew it hadn't gotten far."

Ace jumped back and landed on the railing from which leaped onto the roof of the cabin. "Ah, excuse me for intruding on your ship. You really shouldn't keep slaves, though."

"Shut up and eat it, stupid!" A strong slap knocked her to the end of the chain and Ace clenched his hands into fists.

"After I kill this brat, I'm _Burying_ you in the deck with his corpse." He waved his hand less than an inch from her face and she took the opportunity to sink her teeth into it.

Ace nearly cheered until he saw the slaver's other hand light up.

She jerked back, trembling with wide eyes, and sprinted to the other end of her chain. One hand over her hidden left eye, she glared towards Ace and yelled, "Run, stupid! He's just activated the Bury Bury Fruit! It'll perfectly _Bury_ anything!"

Instantly forgetting his entire "cons" list regarding eating a devil fruit, Ace bit in and then leaped at the lanky man. "You shouldn't use your power against good people, either."

"That overpriced trash is a slave, not a person." His fist swung out faster than any of Luffy's Gum Gum Pistols and Ace knew instinctively he wouldn't be able to dodge and crossed his arms over his face.

Ace wasn't sure who was more surprised when the glowing fist whooshed through his incorporeal body. The girl was swearing worse than he'd even heard, but fury blackened the slaver's eyes. "A logia? You stole the Flame Flame Fruit from me? I'll _Bury_ you alive for that."

With instincts forced into his skull by Old Man Garp's insane training, and a good helping of raging flaring in his chest, Ace reacted more than fought the slaver. Dodging and sending out his own fists in a dance that blurred around the edges in fire. The Bury Bury Fruit wouldn't affect him if it couldn't touch him. Ace drove the slaver against the railing of the ship. "I won't let you hurt anyone else!"

And then the slaver laughed. "That bitch so important you gonna kill me, brat? Guess what - I die and she never sees again. Nothing can reserve the Bury Bury Fruit - 'cept digging it up. Kihihihi, good luck with that." A black x that Ace had assumed was just paint on the railing glowed when the lanky man put his hand over it and a serrated knife seemed to appear in his hand. "This is the power of my devil fruit."

Jerking back, Ace couldn't help but smirk. If that was all the slaver could do, a knife-fight would be no problem. "No worries there, I don't end people's lives." His pocketknife wouldn't cause too much damage, but that only meant he wouldn't have to hold back - at least until he disarmed the man.

As much as Ace tried to maneuver closer to the girl and set her free so they could make a run for it, the slaver kept the fight out of range. A fiery kick set the wicked blade flying into the harbor and left the slaver with a rather crispy hand. Ace pressed his advantage and landed a heavy punch in the man's gut. Adrenaline buzzing in his eyes, Ace barely heard himself speak. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to destroy your ship when I leave. Can't have you buying or selling anyone else."

Going straight for where the girl's chain was attached to the jib's unstayed mast, Ace's brain filtered out most of what the girl herself was saying. It was mostly swear words anyway, so- Ace fell flat on his face when an x on the deck sprouted a barrel.

"Kihihihi, don't underestimate me, little shit."

Eyes blazing, Ace spun around only to see the girl preform a repeat of her solar plexus punch. Everything moved in slow motion then and Ace could have kicked himself because he was barely halfway to the railing when the man splashed into the water. Ace changed his stride, preparing to jump in after the man when the girl moved in front of him. "Don't jump in after him! You ate a devil fruit! That means you can't swim anymore."

"But he'll die!"

She leaned towards the docks. "Hey! Oi! We've got a man overboard!"

Ace climbed on the railing and yelled as loud as he could at the passersby. "Help! He can't swim! Isn't anyone going to help?"

"Everyone here knows what this ship is for, Ace." She jerked on the chain for emphasis.

"So? I saw some girl in the town, he had _costumers _here..." Ace hated how his voice changed from plaintive to disgusted. He looked hopelessly down at the water where there weren't even anymore bubbles. "Why..? You knew he couldn't swim."

"I wasn't thinking! It was either hit him or let him knife you! Look, I hated that disgusting bastard, but him dying-" Her right eye grew huge and she fell to her knees, ripping at the cloth over her left eye. "It's-it's gone. It's really gone..! This wasn't- I didn't- No! That bastard can't be dead, I'm still-"

"Hey now, don't panic-" the words 'It's not that bad' died on Ace's tongue when he saw the black x over her left eyelid. Forcing a smile with as many teeth as possible, Ace got up and moved to unfasten the chains. "How about I unhook you we, uh, get something to eat?" Food always made him and Luffy better. He didn't know if it worked on girls, but it was worth a shot.

"You can try. The key is what he _Buried_ in my eye."

"Oh." Ace tilted his hat back and forth on his head. "There are some pretty good steaks in the galley, how about-" And then sleep overtook him.

* * *

><p>FFN deleted some of my spaces, I apologize for any words mashed together.<p> 


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